Republican Rep. Allen West: “I will take my hands off Medicare when there is no Medicare”

During a recent town hall meeting with his constituents in Pompano Beach, Florida, “Tea Party” Republican Rep. Allen West drew the ire of elderly constituents in his district who were upset with Rep. West’s vote in favor of the 2012 Paul Ryan budget, a budget that would end Medicare and Medicaid as we know them.

During the town hall meeting, Rep. West was asked by one constituent why he went along with almost all of his Republican counterparts in the House in voting to end Medicare. In response, West asserted he didn’t “think it [Ryan budget] destroys Medicare.” West’s response drew hoots from the audience, along with a chant of, “hands off Medicare! Hands off Medicare!” Rebutting the chant, West said, “I will take my hands off Medicare and when there is no Medicare, then I will come see you sir.”

Here’s video of the exchange.

Something tells me Rep. West, who was elected in the Republican wave in 2010, might want to start updating his resume.

4 Responses to Republican Rep. Allen West: “I will take my hands off Medicare when there is no Medicare”

True story. I served with this guy at Fort Riley, Kansas in the 1st Infantry Division Artillery. He was considered an “up and comer”, an opportunist who knew how to talk the talk. And chance is he’d still be in the Army today, perhaps a Flag Officer, except. Except for one thing. One thing you won’t find on his campaign website. As a battalion commander in Afghanistan, he held a loaded and cocked pistol to the head of a detainee, coercing information. His defense was that his actions were necessary to protect his troops. For that action he was court-martialed and forced to retire. Naturally, he was unrepentant. He left the Army in disgrace, yet his followers consider him a hero. What a country.

First off, if your statement is true, which I now believe to be a lie, you didn’t serve with him, you served under him. And if you had, you would have been deployed to Kuwait during Dessert Shield along with then Captain Allen West.

To address your obviously biased and uninformed comment, first of all, the incident did not occur in Afghanistan as you so ignorantly claim. It was in IRAQ and it dealt with an Iraqi policeman who was involved in planned attacks on U.S. soldiers. The scare tactic which LTC West used resulted in the Iraqi disclosing the requested information leading to the arrest of two Iraqi’s and the successful termination of the attacks on LTC West’s 4th infantry Division battalion.

LTC Allen West was NOT court martialed, he accepted an Article 15 non-judicial punishment for his interrogation tactics regarding an enemy combatant and a loss of two months pay and subsequently retired from the U.S. Army.

Your liberal PC resulted in the loss of a true American soldier and patriot which is all the more indicative of the fact that liberals have no business running the military. You have neither the heart nor the balls to do what is right for our combat soldiers and our country.

Regarding Afghanistan, wasn’t it your Messiah Obama that made the promise that he would have all our troops withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014? There’s now 3 days left until 1/1/2014 and there has been no indication by the Messiah that he is going to fulfill his promise……..

In testimony at an Article 32 hearing — the military’s version of a grand jury or preliminary hearing — West said the policeman, Yahya Jhrodi Hamoody, was not cooperating with interrogators, so he watched four of his soldiers from the 220th Field Artillery Battalion beat the detainee on the head and body.

Look, defend Allen West all you want, but let’s not gloss over the crimes he committed. He stood by while men under his command gave a beating to a detainee, conduct which is unacceptable and unbecoming of an officer in the United States military.